Sunday, June 13, 2010

Even though I have never been a keen follower of F1, i decided to give it a visit just to see why this race has so much of craze... And to be honest, now i understand why !!!

The race track opens at 7AM for a race that is to begin at 2PM (there were other small races though before the grand finale). We (Amol, Haresh & I) were at the gates at 630AM only to realise that there were atleast 200 odd people who were before us !!

We were still amongst the early birds and hence could search for a nice viewing spot with the comfort of both proximity as well as big screen visibility. We had general admission tickets and hence reaching early was absolutely necessary to get a decent spot...

The day begins with F1600 and we were amazed even with their speeds not knowing that we had better things to come. Then there was a driver's parade with all F1 drivers sitting behind (for a change) on vintage cars and going at possibly 5% of their original speeds. We got a nice glimpse of Schumy, Hamilton & Others from just about 10m.

Finally, the moment arrives and the grand finale sets off. Haresh was able to find some space right up front to get this video of the very first lap...

The sound of the cars goes right through you - it gives a feel of the speeds at which these cars ply. From where we were standing, we could see them going past us just about 10 metres away!! We were located on the straight stretch just after a hairpin bend and hence could get the exact feel of maximum speeds that these guys can reach...

And of course, the Force India guys gave a tough time to Schumi - gave us another reason to cheer !!